Sign Him Up

The charity football match is always a good event to kick off the Monaco weekend. Fernando Alonso was the star of the whole thing, of course, with his free kick which was picked up by all the news channels. This shot is of that kick, he curled it over the wall like a pro! I don’t cover football, never have except from this match every year, but I quite enjoy doing it as it is something quite different to snapping an F1 event. It’s nice to see the drivers having fun in a unique environment, they actually got kicked around a bit by the pro team! Leicester City boss Claudio Ranieri was there as well — it’s funny actually, he was there last year without a job and this year he was there as a Premier League champion.

Monaco Baby

This is what Monaco is all about, people associate it with the beautiful and the glamorous and this picture manages to get all of that into one shot. These girls were here for most of the race and it provided a good shot with the backdrop of Lewis Hamilton and Daniel Ricciardo fighting for the lead at Nouvelle Chicane with the yachts in the background. Of course, the key is to get cars in to get the whole shot perfect and that’s why I like this one. We tried to get the girls to wave up to us but they were too busy taking pictures of each other to pay much attention!

Dickie Bow

This is the Amber Lounge fashion show before Monaco and Daniel Ricciardo had showed up a bit late. They get measured for their tailored suits and have a load of make-up done, it’s the full treatment. Ricciardo was late so he was running around getting sorted out and then he couldn’t put his dickie bow on! I managed to get the shot as he was being helped, I don’t know if he’d ever put one on before. I don’t know if anyone else was there from Red Bull, he seemed to be there on his own, but the team loves this sort of thing as it promotes the brand. You can tell Ricciardo enjoyed himself; he did a bit of a dance with the singer on stage with all the energy he usually has.

Lewis and the Biebs

I had a lot of backlash on this on Instagram, abuse for Justin Bieber and Lewis Hamilton. They seem to be quite polarising figures. A lot of people were asking why he was there and why Hamilton gave him the champagne before celebrating with the team, all this stuff. To be honest, at first I thought it was Eminem! We saw a quick glance of him on the big screen and it was only when he wandered past us on the grid that we realised who it was. It was a bit strange for Bieber to just be stood there but I guess it’s good for F1 trying to engage with a younger audience and seeing them both enjoying a pally moment was something a bit different and a reminder of Lewis’ fame away from the sport. If there’s a place to watch F1 it’s Monaco — it’s hard not to be impressed with F1 cars when they are flying around the circuit, so close to the wall, so I’m sure Bieber had a good time.

Blessed

Lewis often says he feels “blessed” and he made the most of it on the podium, pointing to the sky and doing the crucifix type shot when celebrating. I guess he was blessed, a bit, because he wouldn’t have won that race without Red Bull messing up their pit stop. It’s a special place for him, like it is with all the drivers, and he had waited since 2008 to win there again. It was also that 44th win he’s been waiting eight races to claim and cut a big gap to Nico Rosberg in the championship so seemed to be a significant moment for both Hamilton and to the 2016 title fight as a whole.